Wednesday, August 5 @ 7:00pmIT’S TRAD, DAD!Directed by Richard Lester • 1962
Real life chart-toppers Helen Shapiro and Craig Douglas star as two earnest teenagers who need to convince their adorably pudgy (but frightfully stern) mayor that the burgeoning jazz craze will not destroy their fair town. Also known as Ring-A-Ding Rhythm, A Hard Day’s Night director Richard Lester’s first feature was shot from a script only eighteen pages long: “I mean, there were no ideas in the script … just literally none. Anything that is there was mine. It had to be.” Infectious, inventive, and unpretentious, It’s Trad, Dad! set the bar for decades of performance films and music videos. Lester’s focus on musicianship brings a level of raw energy lacking in more straightforward music revue films, and the story of our teenage heroes, serialized between numbers, is surprisingly compelling and wacky. With performances by Gene Vincent, the Temperance Seven, Chubby Checker, Del Shannon, the Paris Sisters, and many, many more. (JA)
78 min • Amicus Productions • 35mm from Sony Pictures Repertory

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